Residential homes are typically supplied with electrical power from a power grid, wherein electrical power is delivered to a home from a source of power such as an electrical power substation has been stepped down to a working voltage that meets legislative requirements of a particular location. For example, in Australia, UK and New Zealand, the voltage is stepped down such that the supply is within −6% and +10% of 230 Vac. In the United States, the voltage is stepped down to between approximately 100 Vac and 127 Vac. For this reason, different countries typically have their own unique power outlet configurations including unique connection sockets for appliances that consume electricity.
A typical electrical power supply system for a residential home that enables control of individual electrical power outlets includes a central or master control computer or device which is supplied power from the grid, wherein the control device distributes electricity to a network of electrical power outlets throughout the home. In such systems, the central controller represents a “single point of failure”, which means that a fault in the central controller will typically cause the entire system including all of the remaining power outlets to fail, or operate incorrectly. A fault in the central controller typically requires access to the central control unit to re-set the controller and re-activate the supply of electricity to the electrical power outlets. Power failures across all power outlets of a home, office, building, apartment, etc, have the potential to cause loss and damage including but not limited to data loss, damage to devices connected to each power outlet, significant repair costs, not to mention safety concerns for persons including children who may be operating the devices or in the vicinity of the power outlets. In the instance of electrically powered equipment such as refrigeration and or freezer units, the contents of such equipment can spoil in the event of a lack of electrical power and this can result in significant consequential loss.
The “automated” supply of electricity to individual power outlets within a home or other dwelling has become increasingly popular, whereby the supply of electricity from the master control device to any one power outlet may be controlled or configured such that power is supplied to a particular outlet according to user selection which may be via wired or wireless instructions sent from a user device. For example, remote automation may involve electrical control of individual power outlets through portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets, or similar devices. However, known automated systems rely upon a master control computer for controlling the supply of electricity from individual power outlets. The “single point of failure” problem is a significant and sometimes regular problem that is frustrating to users. Further, central controllers typically implement a proprietary control protocol there by requiring users to purchase electrical power outlets that utilise the same protocol and hence they are usually “locked in” to purchasing additional electrical power outlets from the same manufacturer of the central control unit.
Existing centrally controlled electrical power supply systems therefore suffer a range of problems.
In summary, hitherto known systems of supplying electrical power in homes, buildings, and other environments typically use a master controller computer or device to individually manage the power monitoring, measurement, power control and automation of devices in a network, which results in a number of disadvantages some of which some are described above.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome at least some of the aforementioned problems or to provide the public with a useful alternative.